The Family (Or most of them)

November 20, 2007

WW's Big Adventure in the Big Smoke -- Day 1

SOME 21 HOURS AFTER I WOKE UP IN WINNIPEG FOR A 6 A.M. FLIGHT TO TORONTO, I AM READY TO GO TO BED.

I'm here, doncha know, in Toronto, which the rest of us Canadians like to call The Big Smoke or Hogtown or Tarrana, for Sunday's 95th Grey Cup game.

It features our Winnipeg Blue Bombers playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a Battle of the Stubble-Jumpers, which for all you mountain-dwelling bloggers or residents of hilly country is another word for Flatlanders, which is another word for people who live on the Prairies.

This is going to be very quick and down and dirty (well, maybe not dirty). I have no energy to load any pictures. But if I did have that energy, those pictures would be of the CN Tower, until recently the world's tallest free-standing structure, which is right outside my hotel room on Front Street.

Or those pictures would be of Toronto's Skydome, now called Rogers Centre, a domed stadium where Sunday's game will be played. My hotel is attached to the stadium. But my main view is of a series of railroad tracks seven floors below. Harumph.

It's been a crazy day. After being unable to get to sleep in Winnipeg last night, I had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Toronto, which is Canada's largest city. I arrived here around 9 a.m., made it to the hotel, checked in and immediately started writing.

I tried to sleep in the afternoon but couldn't. I caught a cab with a buddy at around 5:30 to go out and greet our team at the airport, did several interviews, came back to the hotel, wrote the rest of my stuff and went out for supper, just returning now.

I will lay my head down to sleep with plenty of steak and two beers to digest. Tomorrow (Wednesday), everything starts in earnest with the teams here and the practices slated to begin.

Have an awesome time buddy. Take it all in and do your thing.I'll be reading your reports in the papers!

I know that you will be crazy-busy but try to have some fun..this experience will keep you busy scrapbooking for weeks!Oooh..I better go see what is happening on your Facebook too.We can talk about this later on Second Life..see ya later.

Actually, pretty much all of us Canadians say "Eh," or at least that's what we're led to believe.

It's been a wild week that would be busy enough just with the Grey Cup game, but the workload's been doubled this week because our university football team was here competing in their national championship.

And they won that title tonight over a team on Canada's Atlantic Coast. At least that's all finished now...two days to go...

Ziggi:

I'm starting to think they say "Eh" all over the world...:-)

Homely:

No time for fun so far, Goober Boy...not enough hours in the day. I hope to rectify that Saturday night, though...

And I thought it was Ally who did the scrapbooking thing...

Stace:

I DO think Eh is becoming universal. It hasn't invaded Oz yet though?

Anna:

Yep, been a bunch of 15-hour days, for the most part. Have a great time in Cuba! I do have several days of down time when I get back...

My mother says eh all the time.But it's generally when she hasn't heard something. It drives me nuts. She has said it my whole life.She also says(along with her siblings) "so he did" e.g such and such bought a new car, so he did. that also drives me mental :).

Close to 40 years since The Man lived in Toronto, but he still pronounces it without the second "t" He says he learned to do that so the US border guards would think he was a native Canuck!(Otherwise there lengthy delays and perusal of passports and searching of cars.)

The world of Farcebook

I have kids on Farcebook. And friends. And a fiance. And all are very intelligent human beings.

I am on Farcebook myself. But it is the TV of life now. It is the simple, devoid of ideas, unintelligent way of humans communicating. I am not saying people who don't Farcebook are any more intelligent, necessarily.

They are people who , I believe, are like newspaper readers are to television viewers --people of more depth -- and I mean that with no disrespect.

And they are people who need and want more depth, not less, in their lives.